Monthly Archives: May 2015

Singapore Airlines (Singapore) is painting two of its Airbus A380s in a special livery featuring a large Singapore flag theme to help celebrate the 50th anniversary. The pictured Airbus A380-841 9V-SKI (msn 034) is the first to be painted.

The airline issued this statement:

Singapore Airlines is celebrating the nation’s Golden Jubilee by having two Airbus A380s in a special livery, featuring a large Singapore flag-themed design on the fuselage.

The first aircraft with the commemorative livery will take to the skies in early June and the second in July. The A380s will be in the livery until the end of 2015, with the aircraft serving Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Sydney and Zurich routes.

The A380 is the world’s largest aircraft and the special livery features a 10m-tall and 47m-long Singapore flag-themed design on both sides of the fuselage. On the two inboard engines is the official SG50 logo.

“Singapore Airlines’ success is closely tied to the success of Singapore. What better way to celebrate SG50 than by proudly flying the national flag around the world on the world’s largest aircraft,” said Singapore Airlines CEO, Mr Goh Choon Phong.

The special livery is one of many initiatives by Singapore Airlines to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday.

A special A380 Charity Flight was operated on May 29, on which some 300 beneficiaries of Community Chest will experience a three-hour flight. Beneficiaries will include children with special needs, adults with disabilities, as well as disadvantaged elderly and families, many of whom have never had the opportunity to take a flight.

Activities to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday began last year, and included the SIA Charity Run and Charity Gala Dinner, which raised some $2.5 million for Community Chest.

Emirates (Dubai) has announced plans to start a daily service to Bologna, Italy, from November 3, 2015.

The capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, Bologna will be Emirates’ fourth Italian destination bringing Emirates’ weekly flights to Italy to 56. The new route will be operated by a Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft in a three class configuration.

Emirates’ flight EK 093 will depart Dubai International Airport at 0845 and will arrive at Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport at 1220 the same day. The return flight will depart Bologna at 1440 and arrive in Dubai at 2330 the same day.

Copa Airlines (Panama City) will add a new daily nonstop route to San Francisco starting on September 17, 2015 from Tocumen International Airport in Panama City according to San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

The airport issued this statement:

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) announced Copa Airlines will begin nonstop service between San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Panama City, Panama this fall.

Copa Airlines officials said the airline plans to launch service at SFO on September 17, 2015, with flights operating seven days per week to the airline’s Hub of the Americas at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City. Copa offers connecting flights to more than 55 cities across Latin America through the airport, the largest and busiest in Central America.

Copa flight 209 will depart San Francisco daily at 11:19 p.m., arriving at Copa’s Hub of the Americas at Tocumen International Airport in Panama at 8:32 a.m. the following day. The return flight 208, will depart Panama at 9:41 a.m., arriving in San Francisco at 2:54 p.m. Copa will operate a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft on the approximately 6-hour, 45-minute flight, with premium configuration and seating capacity for 16 passengers in Business Class and 138 in the main cabin.

Airbus A320 family aircraft production in the U.S. is on schedule to begin this summer as the large aircraft components for the first U.S.-produced aircraft today depart from the port in Hamburg, Germany, bound for Mobile, Alabama. The major component assemblies (MCAs) consist of the wings produced in the UK, the rear fuselage section produced in Germany including the tail cone (produced in Spain), and the forward fuselage section, including the cockpit produced in France, all of which contain parts from all over the world. The horizontal (from Spain) and vertical (from Germany) stabilisers are also on board. The first aircraft is an A321ceo destined for delivery to JetBlue in 2016.

Airbus established the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility in Mobile to assemble and deliver A319, A320 and A321 aircraft to meet the growing needs of its customers in the United States and elsewhere. It is the company’s first U.S.-based production facility, and the fourth in the network which includes Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; and Tianjin, China.

Approximately 200 employees, including some from Mobile who are training in Hamburg, celebrated this first shipment in a ceremony held today to launch the cargo ship, in the presence of the U.S. Consul General in Hamburg, Nancy Corbett. Traditional songs from all four European Airbus nations and the U.S. were played as the ship, bearing German and U.S. flags, and flags of the city state of Hamburg and the state of Alabama, sailed off.

American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth) and United Airlines (Chicago) have publicly come out in support of the announcement of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of its intent to expand customs, immigration and agriculture preclearance to 10 additional gateway airports:

American Airlines issued this statement:

American Airlines applauds the announcement by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for their plans to enter negotiations to expand preclearance operations to 10 key gateway airports – seven of which are served by American.

“Expanding air preclearance is a tremendous step forward for improving the overall travel experience for our customers and welcoming more visitors to the United States,” said Robert Isom, chief operating officer for American Airlines. “Preclearance eases the congestion at our U.S. gateway airports and ensures our customers get to their destinations faster. We fully support Secretary Jeh Johnson and the Obama Administration’s plans for bringing more tourists to the United States, and we are excited to begin discussions on expanding preclearance facilities.”

American currently serves seven of the airports on the list for potential preclearance expansion – London Heathrow; Manchester, England; Tokyo’s Narita International; Spain’s Madrid-Barajas; Brussels; Amsterdam Schiphol; and Punta Cana International in the Dominican Republic.

At preclearance facilities, CBP Officers are stationed abroad to screen passengers and their accompanying goods or baggage heading to the United States. CBP Officers retain the authority to inspect these passengers after arriving in the U.S.

American will continue to work with DHS and CBP to ensure the negotiations are successful.

United Airlines issued this statement:

We have worked closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and support developments that provide more convenience for our customers. We thank Secretary Johnson and his team at the Department of Homeland Security and CBP for their engagement with United and the airline industry, and we look forward to partnering with them on this initiative to facilitate travel and reduce wait times.

Eastern Air Lines (2nd) (Miami) after initially announcing it would start revenue passenger operations on the morning of May 27, the new airline and HavanaAir delayed the first charter flight to May 28. The historic first flight, flight EE 3145 departed Miami bound for Havana at 2:26 pm (1426) on May 28 per FlightAware.

Copyright Photo: L. Apso. This historic photo above captures Boeing 737-8AL N276EA (msn 35070) taxiing out to the runway at Miami International Airport on its first revenue flight to Havana on May 28.